November 15, 2023

In August to October 2023, the estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 58,000 on the quarter to 957,000. Vacancies fell on the quarter for the 16th consecutive period, with vacancies falling in 16 of the 18 industry sectors.

Annual growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) in Great Britain was 7.7% in July to September 2023, slightly down on the previous periods, but is still among the highest annual growth rates since comparable records began in 2001. Annual growth in employees’ average total pay (including bonuses) was 7.9%. This total annual growth rate is affected by the Civil Service one-off payments made in July and August 2023. In real terms (adjusted for inflation using Consumer Prices Index including owner occupier’s housing costs (CPIH)), annual growth for total pay rose on the year by 1.4%, and regular pay rose on the year by 1.3%.

There were 229,000 working days lost because of labour disputes across the UK in September 2023. The majority of the strikes were in the health and social work and education sectors.

UK payrolled employee growth for September 2023 compared with August 2023 has been revised from a decrease of 11,000 reported in the last bulletin to an increase of 32,000.

The estimate of payrolled employees in the UK for October 2023 increased by 33,000 on the revised September 2023 figure, to 30.2 million. The October 2023 estimate should be treated as a provisional estimate and is likely to be revised when more data are received next month.

Because of the increased uncertainty around the Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates, we are publishing an alternative series of estimates of UK employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity. These figures were derived using growth rates from Pay As You Earn Real-Time Information (excluding the early flash estimate) and the Claimant Count for the periods from May to July 2023 onwards. This is to provide a more holistic view of the state of the labour market while the LFS estimates are uncertain.

These alternative estimates for July to September 2023 show that;

  • the UK employment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points on the quarter to 75.7%
  • the UK unemployment rate was largely unchanged on the quarter at 4.2%
  • the UK economic inactivity rate was largely unchanged on the quarter at 20.9%.

Source: Office for National Statistics
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